A Mom's boutique in Saugerties (video)

Wendy Chilcott-Coffey, left, owner of W Couture boutique on Main Street in Saugerties, stands with her daughter Karissa Coffey, who was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 15. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

Wendy Chilcott Coffey isn't the sort of woman who expects or even wants flowers or candy on Mother's Day.

She has all that she needs right in her 900-square-foot boutique in the heart of Saugerties' business district.

Chilcott Coffey surveys the assortment of high-end designer and casual wear, scarves, belts, handbags and jewelry that give her shop such panache and personality, and she radiates with well-deserved pride.

"Oh, my gosh," she said. "I live for it. I've wanted to have my own boutique for the past 23 years. It was kind of like a seed that was planted, but I kind of buried it because life got in the way."

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It isn't, however, the material things at W Couture Boutique at 250 Main St. that give her the greatest satisfaction this Mother's Day.

It is the soft-spoken, porcelain-skinned girl who, along with her mother, arranges and prices the merchandise in the year-old shop.

Chilcott Coffey's 22-year-old daughter, Karissa, almost died two years ago in what her mother describes as an almost year-long nightmare.

Today, Karissa looks healthy, is quick to help her mother's customers and shows few signs of the disease that nearly shut down her organs while she was a student at Ulster County Community College in 2011.

She was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when she was 15, and from there, it all went downhill.

The disease runs in Chilcott Coffey's family, so although the news stung, it was not surprising.

It's what happened about five years later that tested Chilcott Coffey, a single mother of three, and made her look at life in a different way.

"Nobody knew what was wrong with her," Chilcott Coffey said. "She threw up every day, all day and all night. It was the most extreme vomiting I've ever seen."

Karissa's condition befuddled area doctors, Chilcott Coffey said, so she took her to the Lahey Clinic in Boston and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, desperately seeking answers.

In fact, 12 doctors would examine her and not come up with a diagnosis, she said.

In the meantime, Karissa was put on a jejunal feeding tube, a hollow device inserted in the small intestine to allow the necessary nutrients into her bloodstream.

"That's what kept her alive," Chilcott Coffey said.

It was at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla where she finally learned what was wrong with her daughter.

The doctor there told her Karissa had "gastroparesis," a condition in which the stomach muscles stop working normally.

He told her he could help by implanting a gastric pacemaker to stimulate the stomach to control Karissa's nausea and vomiting.

Just hearing that there was hope made Chilcott Coffey ecstatic. She said it was like a huge weight fell off her shoulders.

"We held each other and cried," Chilcott Coffey said when she and Karissa got the diagnosis. "Nobody before ever said, 'We're going to help you.'"

Karissa underwent the procedure, and though it took a while for the pacemaker to make a difference, it finally started working.

"When she could eat food for the first time, everybody was so happy," Chilcott Coffey said. "Just to see her put food in her mouth was incredible."

Karissa, who also has Celiac disease, can now keep food down, and she's gained back much of the weight she lost at the height of her illness.

And she said she feels like she has her life back in order. During her suffering, Karissa was confined to her bedroom and in a wheelchair. Her mother became her nurse and often cared for her around the clock.

"It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever had to go through," Karissa said. "Every single day, it was just like agony, and I cannot even recollect how awful it was."

Today, she works side by side with her mother as the manager at W Couture Boutique.

Karissa, who studied art at UCCC, considers herself a fashion stylist like her mother--one who skillfully fits women in garments that flatter them most.

"She has a natural ability," her mother says. "It's a gift."

Chilcott Coffey, who just completed her studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology, opened the store in March of 2012 to fulfill her dream, but also to pay for her daughter's mounting medical expenses.

A big part of what she does as a businesswoman is to give back to medical research.

Whenever customers buy something at W Couture, a portion of the sale goes to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Celiac Disease Foundation and organizations dedicated to finding treatments for gastroparesis.

During her daughter's illness, Chilcott Coffey organized a fundraiser to help defray some of Karissa's medical expenses.

She sold jewelry and handbags and raised $2,000 on her daughter's behalf.

It was then that people urged her to follow her dream and open a boutique once her daughter got better.

"She almost died, and it made me realize I've got to do this," Chilcott Coffey said. "When I took the risk to start the boutique, my parents thought I was crazy, but I realized how short life was."

Since she's been open, Chilcott Coffey has made a lot of friends in the community and is glad to share her fashion expertise and dress area women in the latest styles.

She just introduced her own W Couture label that includes a one-shoulder block dress inspired by Beyonce's black-and-white jumpsuit at the Grammys.

Eighty-five percent of the labels she carries are made in the United States.

"People come in and say they feel like they're in Manhattan or Saratoga or Jersey," Chilcott Coffey said.

"People love it. I definitely get a lot of positive feedback, and we've only been open a year, I see repeat clients. It's like family. It's very warm and loving here," she said.

As for her journey and how she got through it, Chilcott Coffey said it took a lot of prayer and positive thinking.

"I look back and I honestly say, 'How did I do it?' Every day, I was so determined to help her, but believe me, I had my moments when I would just break down and cry my eyes out," she said.